All the Devils' hottest news, from notes to numbers to neutral-zone traps

Sunday, June 22, 2014

The Devils will open the 2014-15 regular season with four road games before playing their home opener on against San Jose on Saturday, Oct. 18.

The Devils open the season on Thursday, Oct. 9 in Philadelphia and then travel to Florida to play the Panthers on Saturday, Oct. 11 before visiting Tampa Bay on Tuesday, Oct. 14 and Washington on Thursday, Oct. 16.

After that, the Devils play three in a row at home: Saturday, Oct. 18 against San Jose, Tuesday, Oct. 21 against the Rangers and Friday, Oct. 24 against Dallas. The Oct. 21 game is one of only four the Devils play against the Rangers in 2014-15.

Under the National Hockey League’s scheduling matrix, which changed before last season, the Devils will play 30 games against Metropolitan Division teams: five games apiece vs. Pittsburgh and Washington; and four each against Carolina, Columbus, the Islanders, the Rangers and Philadelphia.

The Devils' four games against the Islanders and the Rangers are their fewest against those area rivals that they've ever played in a non-lockout season. The only other time the Devils played the Islanders as few as four times was during the 1994-95 lockout-shortened season. The Devils played the Rangers four times during both the 1994-95 and 2012-13 lockout-shortened seasons.

The Devils also played the Flyers only four times last season.

After hosting the Rangers on Tuesday, Oct. 21, the Devils don't face them again until Saturday, Dec. 27 at Madison Square Garden. Their two remaining games against the Blueshirts are a home-and-home series on April 4 at MSG and April 7 at The Rock.

The Devils face the Islanders for the first time in 2014-15 on Saturday, Nov. 29 at Nassau Coliseum and play them again at the Coliseum on Monday, Dec. 15. They host the Islanders on Friday, Jan. 9 and Saturday, March 21.

The Devils’ home schedule features 22 weekend dates, including 11 games on Fridays, nine Saturday contests and two Sunday matches. The team's longest homestand is six games from Tuesday, Feb. 17 to Friday, Feb. 27.

All home games are 7 p.m. starts except for Wednesday, Jan. 28 vs. Toronto (7:30 p.m.), Wednesday, Feb. 25 vs. Calgary (7:30 p.m.) and Sunday, March 8 vs. Philadelphia (5 p.m.). They also play only one road game that starts earlier than 7 p.m. -- a 5 p.m. start on Saturday, Feb. 28 at Columbus.

The Devils play six of their first nine games on the road and 21 of their first 32 outside of Prudential Center. That includes a 20-game stretch from Nov. 6 to Dec. 15 in which they play 15 times on the road and just five times at home.

The four-game season-opening road trip is tied for the Devils' longest of the season. They also have a four-game Western Conference road trip from Tuesday., Nov. 18 through Tuesday, Nov. 25 to Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.

The Devils have a three-game California road trip that begins against the reigning Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday Jan. 14 and includes stops in Anaheim on Friday, Jan. 16 and San Jose on Monday, Jan. 19.

The Kings make their only visit to Prudential Center on Monday, March 23.

With the all-star break following that trip (the game is Sunday, Jan. 25 in Columbus), the Devils have eight days off before they resume play on Wednesday, Jan. 28 against Toronto at Prudential Center.

The Devils will play 24 games against. Atlantic Division teams and face each of the 14 Western Conference teams twice -- once at home and once on the road.

After leading the NHL with 22 sets of back-to-backs last season, the Devils play 18 sets of back-to-backs in 2014-15, including four in which both games are at home. Only Columbus and Buffalo, which both have 19 sets of back-to-back games, have more. Toronto also has 18 sets of back-to-backs.

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.